Combined caster and corner-clamp for trunks



(No Model.) v v Q I w. B. GOULD. COMBINED UASTER AND CORNER ULAM P No.244,447.. Patented Ju1yl9,1881.

1? FOR TRUNKS.-

' UNITED STATES PATENT QEEICE.

WILLIAM B. GOULD, 0E MONTROSE, NEW JERSEY.

COMBINED CASTER AND CORNER-CLAMP FOR TRUNKS.

SPECIFICATION forming-part of Letters Patent No. 244,447, dated July 19,1881.

Application filed May 19, 1881.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM B. GOULD, of Montrose, in the county ofEssex and State of New Jersey, have invented an Improved Corner-Olampand Roller for Trunks, of which the following is a specification.

Figure l is a face view of the blank from which my improvedcorner-clampis made. Fig. 2 is a face view of said clamp with the earsturned at right angles to the body. Fig. 3 is an edge view of the blankwhen in the condition shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is an edge view of thecomplete corner-clamp and roller. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of thecorner-clamp without the roller, and Fig. 6 a perspective view of thecorner-clamp with the roller.

This invention relates to a new form and construction of angle-ironsthat are used as braces or strengtheners for trunks and similar boxes,such irons being commonly known as corner-clamps. The particular kind ofsuch corner-clamps to which my invention pertains is the kind adapted toreceive a roller on which the trunk or box is supported. Heretofore suchrollers have been hung in corner-irons in various ways--sometimes inbraces that project from the inner angle of the iron, sometimes in carsthat extend from the outer face of one of the wings of the iron. Thedifficulty with both of these structures was, first, in the manufacture,and, second, as to durability.

To form a corner-clam p with wings or braces that extend inward from theangle is a matter of great dificulty, and almost, as has heretofore beenthe construction, impossible, unless the article is cast, in which. caseit is not as desirable for actual use as if made of wrought metal; yetof wrought metal it could not be made unless the ears or braces wereseparately soldered on. If the ears that carry the roller projectoutward from one of the wings of the corner-clamp, the difiiculty was,first, that the roller would frequently be at too great a distance fromthe trunk-bottom, and therefore liable to be broken off in use under aheavy trunk. To obviate this, more or less costly appliances to giveadditional strength to the roller-carrying ears have been invented and.

made the subjects of several patents; but all (No model.)

these contrivances added to the expense of the construction, and didnot, in fact, always succeed in overcoming the objection as to the dis-,tance from the bottom of the trunk.

My invention consists in forming the rollercarrying cars from the blankor body of the corner-clamp in such a manner that they will projectinwardthat is to say, into the angle of the corner-clamp, and so, also,that each end of the pintle or axle of the roller will rest in two ears,thus furnishing four supportingears for each roller. The two cars ateach end are in contact with one another and brace each other, and thusgreat strength is insured without at all adding to the expense of thecornerclamp, the formation of the ears being merely obtained by aprocessof cutting and bending, not by adding anything to themetal of thecorner-clamp.

In the accompanying drawings, the letter A I arated from the lowerseries of lapels, c d, by

the transverse incision g. Each of the lapels,- moreover, may, ifdesired, be perforated with one hole, as shown in Fig. 1, at the sametime that the blank is out. In fact, the same operation of stamping orcutting'which gives external form to the blank A may also be utilized toform the set of four lapels, in mannerindicated in Fig. 1. The nextpartbf the opera tion is to bend said four lapels at right angles to theblank A, as in Figs.2 and 3, on the lines that join said lapels to theblank. It will be seen in Fig. 2 that when the lapels are? thus bent atright angles the lapel a is not directly above the lapel 0, but a littlefarther toward the inside of the blank A than c. The same remarks applyto the relative positions of the 35 lapels b and d.

Instead of forming the lapels so that a and b are nearer to each otherthan c and d, the

lapels c and d may be made to be nearer to each other than a and b.

The next operation is to bend the straight blank on the line of theincision g at right angles, as in Fig. 4, thereby carrying the lapel 0face to face against and in line with the lapel a, and in like mannerbringing the lapels b and d together. I thus form double braces or earsin the angle of the corner-clamp, as shown in Fig. 5, out of thematerial of the blank itself, and in these double braces the roller B ishung, its axle or pintle fitting into the apertures of the said bracesor cars. These apertures may, if desired, be drilled through said earsafter the corner-clamp has been bent into the position shown in Fig. 4,or may be stamped when the lapels for said ears are first cut out, as inFig. 1.

I claim- 1. The sheet-metal corner-clamp A, having 20inwardly-projecting ears on c and b 01, arranged in pairs, substantiallyas described.

2. The combination of the corner-clamp A, having inwardly-projectingears a c and b d, arranged in pairs, with the roller B hung in 25 saidears, substantially as herein shown and described.

3. The method herein described of constructin g a corner-clamp withinwardly-projecting ears by cutting said ears in two pairs out of 0 thebody of the corner-clamp, and then bringing them in line by firstbending them on the blank, and then bending the blank itself,substantially as specified.

WM. B. GOULD.

Witnesses:

SAML. R. BETTS, WILLY G. E. SCHULTZ.

